The Trail Smoke Eaters evened the Interior Division quarter-final series with the Merritt Centennials on Saturday.
Smoke Eaters defenceman Trevor Zins netted the game winner 12:06 into the second period as the St. Cloud commit carried the puck down the right wing then sniped a shot under the glove of Merritt goalie Austin Roden to give Trail a 3-1 lead on the way to a 5-2 victory.
The victory evens the series at one game apiece in the best-of-seven series, following a 4-2 Cents’ win on Friday. The series resumes in Trail on Tuesday.
The Smoke Eaters opened the scoring on a Mack Byers tally 5:53 into the first period, going off the post and in, beating Roden blocker side. Midway through the period, Byers made it 2-0 at the tail-end of a power play with another shot by the blocker of the Cents goalie.
The Centennials Matthew Kopperud scored two minutes later, and Ryan Van Unen made it a one-goal game at 1:56 of the third period. But Trail refused to yield as Kent Johnson deked out Roden on a breakaway to make it 4-2 at 3:06 and Hayden Rowan converted a setup from Tyler Ghirardosi for the 5-2 final.
Donovan Buskey was again sharp in the Smoke Eaters net stopping 32 0f 34 shots, while Roden stopped 26 of 31 for the Centennials.
Byers earned the game’s first star, Zins was second star, and Buskey was the third star.
Game 3 of the Smoke Eaters-Centennials series goes Tuesday at the Cominco Arena at 7 p.m.
